Bradley77 0 #1 August 21, 2006 Ok, I love jumping and I feel pretty safe up in the air and under canopy. I don't get nervious jumping unless a week has gone by and after the stepping off the plane any and all nerves go away. I am a newbie jump and still learning. This past weekend I was at the dz. On Sun I ran out to get breakfast and I just started laughing at myself. I had jumped a total of 15 times since July including two tandems. All I could think of was that my jumps were a comedy of errors. Nothing too error prone, but errors nonetheless. This is how it goes: 15 jumps - 20% with line twists (3 line twists but none in the last 5 jumps) - Solo jump was off by about 4 miles! - AFF 7 first unassisted flare was 5 feet too high w/hard landing - AFF 6 first unassisted exit, 1st dive exit: flipped uncontrollable 4 times until I arched hard and came belly to earth. - And I fell out of the freakin plane this weekend!* All I can do is laugh at myself. I've corrected most of my errors so I don't repeat. And even during my errors I've felt safe and can correct them as I go to come out safe. * Now this had to be the funniest one of all. Not like I really just fell out of the plane...but sort of. I was stepping out for a poised/student exit (facing the front of the plane) from a Cessna 206. I put my left foot out on the platform and then grab the strut with my left hand. So when I stepped out into the wind I had to swing my right hand out to grab the strut and bring my right foot onto the small platform. The next thing I know was the 80-90 knot wind hit me and swung me around and partially off the platform while hanging on to the strut. My left foot was half on the platform but the platform was now at hip level with my right leg dangling down and I was hanging from the strut! It was a coach dive for me and my coach just looked at me and smiled! I just looked back at him, smiled and then mouthed the words, "I gotta go!". I dropped my foot down off the platform so that I was just hanging down from the strut 10K feet in the air. Then I swung out a bit to miss the tire and I just let go. My coach dived out after me and we proceeded with the lesson! Looking back at my errors I realized that in some cases I could certainly have been hurt. But in each case my training came back to me and I solved the problem...and I felt relatively comfortable making the correction....whether it be a line twist, off landing, or hanging from a strut. Certainly errors aren't always fun but I have learned from them. But I do have to laugh at myself sometimes....especially when I realize the I jump out of planes! --- My instructor does say that I jump well, fly well, and land well. So I'm not just flopping around out there. I've just had a few...umm errors! Anyone else have any comedy of error stories?Damn, this is fun! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jheadley 0 #2 August 21, 2006 Honestly everything you said is actually pretty normal, except the landing 4 miles off... Were you spotting? I did pretty much all those things as a student, except fall off the step, however I do know a few people with hundreds of jumps, and in one case, someone with almost 5,000 jumps who fell off the step of a cessna. So don't fret about the little things. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stevetaylor 0 #3 August 21, 2006 QuoteAnyone else have any comedy of error stories? Hehehe...thanks for sharing. OK, here's my contribution from my "long" career of diving (15 jumps)... Low solo...scared as all get out, even though the exit was from 6k (not really low, I know). But looking at the ground from the plane at a level that I wasused to pulling from, the sphincter-scale was pretty high, as my stability on exit wasn't the greatest. So I exited, and promptly veered to the left and went a bout 30 degrees head down. I just wanted to get some damn nylon overhead, so I reached back and grabbed the handle. Silly me, I didn't bring my left hand in to compensate, so as I pulled I went into a roll to the left. So here I was, head down, looking up at the sky, and seeing the line stows deploying in front of me. I thought to myself, as the chute came out of the bag (and me watching it do so), Damn, this is gonna hurt. It actually did't hurt too bad, but flipped me up and over rather violently, and the resulting riser strike to the helmet (thank the gods for that), ripped the (new) Dytter off and into the sunlight. (Damn) So the lessons learned was to trust the training, get better at stability on exit (which I have), and that the parachute really does want to open... Steve The definition of insanity is to keep doing things the same way, but then to expect different results. -Einstein Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
legorowbot 0 #4 August 21, 2006 My nineth jump I exited across the wind, instead of facing into it. I ended up tumbling and rolling for a few seconds until my arch straightened me out. So far it was my favorite exit... I had a blast. When I got to the ground the instructor just laughed at me (I was laughing too). I guess the bottom line is that if your on the ground laughing, you couldn't have screwed up too badly....Why does it say "Append signature to post" when I don't have a signature? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AdrenalineBluez 0 #5 August 21, 2006 I had just purchased a full face helmet (Oxygn A3). At the time I had about 5 or 6 jumps on it. I was only 20 or so jumps in to the sport as well. I was so excited come time to exit I forgot to put the face shield down. As luck would have it it didn't rip off on exit. Since I wasn't licensed I was solo, and had time to deal with it. It had to have been comical if anyone saw me flip flopping all over the sky. I would get it closed and it would pop back open. I was upside down, or on my back, or any other position I could think of to get it to seat. It finally did... The rest of the skydive was uneventful... P.S. You would think I would have learned my lesson. But I have since done it again. Still have not lost a visor tho.. Props to the guys that build em... "Uh oh! This is gonna hurt!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kefran 0 #6 August 21, 2006 well ... i guess we all have our «moments of glory» my best one being as following : last year we took off me and an instructor to finalize my RW anotation, nothing that i haven't done before ... simple exit, some simple moves, docks etc ... from the exit (13500) to the break off altitude (5000) i wasn't able to get stable on my belly, i was just rolling forward, rolling backward etc ... at 5000 suddenly i waved at the instructor (who was crying of laugh ...) and .... did a perfect track the main error here was : the instructor got his cam «ON» and i was suddenly part of the «movie of the year» that our DZ build each end of season but today it's one of my bests «souvenirs» -------------------------------------------------- I never used 2 rocks to start a fire ... this is called evolution ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krkeenan 0 #7 August 21, 2006 Mistakes that you survive are called "Experience". Congratulations !! You're on your way to becoming experienced. Kevin K.====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Daane 0 #8 August 21, 2006 Jump #8 first clear and pull got really excited pushed off and pulled at the same time caused a line over and a line under the bottom of the container. And thats when I got my first reserve ride. Reserve was a round. So your doing just fine. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
